Stamps as Witnesses of History is not a book about the history of stampsas such. It is a book about how stamp issues since Rowland Hill invented thefirst adhesive postage stamp in 1840 have "witnessed" the seismicglobal political developments over the years. It is a guide to politicalphilately, which aims to show how stamp issues have reflected and have relatedto key political events. Thus stamps of the North German Confederation marked a major stepping stone toGerman unification, a truly momentous political event, whilst selected Africanstamps of the 1960s celebrated the independence of many emerging African statesfrom European colonial empires. The book is arranged geographically, coveringthe whole world. For each country entry, the major political developments arelisted chronologically on the left hand side with contemporaneous stamps,supported in some instances by relevant commemoratives, on the right hand side.